“Monday Motivation-The Right Team?”

Coming together is a beginning. Keeping together is progress. Working together is success. -Henry Ford

So you pull on your first pair of skates when you’re only 2 years old. You bang around the ice for years chasing a dream. Some days you’re the hero and others the goat, but you keep on pushing. So many talented skaters. Yet in spite of all the possible tripping points you keep advancing. Suddenly you’re a professional hockey player.

Traveling to cities wide and far, you experience the ups and downs of being a professional athlete. You also get introduced to the business of hockey; negotiating contracts and finding yourself a new hometown. Once this is settled, you hit the ice in pursuit of the ultimate prize…the Stanley Cup.

This story could relate to the pursuit of any big dream such as Sir Edmund Hillary’s quest for the peak of Everest or Roger Bannister’s achieving the previously inconceivable sub 4 minute mile. It’s also fairly easy in all endeavors to find those who finally broke through, but it still begs the question how? There are plenty of people who are good enough, but what is the difference for those who get to the summit.

I had a unique opportunity recently to talk to a kid who made it through and carried the Stanley Cup. His story was beyond the typical 80 plus grind-a-thon of a season, as he was traded during the course of the year away from what he had known as home. Arriving in a foreign locker room, he knew a few but not many as he looked for a new rhythm. What he didn’t know was this was his time.

Today, the kid is known as Chris Kelly, member of the 2011 Boston Bruins Stanley Cup championship team. It was cool enough to chat about the victory, but I had to know why. What was the difference? As I searched for the tipping point there was a discussion about team and coaching. It might seem obvious, but at a level where everybody is good enough, a chemistry of people must come together.

As Kelly recounted the story you could see in his eyes that he had indeed found a family. A place were finally he could be the very best that he was capable of being along with his teammates. He had found a place where the ice would tip in the championship direction. After an incredible battle of attrition, Kelly and the Bruins found themselves in a do or die game 7 in a hostile Vancouver arena.

As Kelly recounted the story, you could see the emotion of the moment resurface as perhaps he once again realized that this was no dream, it really had happened and nobody would ever be able to take it away from him and his hockey family. The had gone to battle together and won…bonded forever.

So what about you? Are you chasing your passion? Are you grinding relentlessly forward? Do you throw yourself onto your mount Everest and claw yourself towards the summit? Sure maybe you could explain away that all of this requires a lot of luck or divine intervention, hockey fans refer to the Hockey Gods smiling down, but the fact is that it takes a heavy dose of hard work and the support of a great team. When you have the love and support of other people there is no limit. So get out there and look for the right people and when you find them, accept the help and most importantly don’t ever quit because you have no chance sitting on the bench!

Dedicated to Chris Kelly and the Bruins who gave this Boston kid a great thrill in 2011!

Tags: Bruins, Champions, Danny Griffin, Free Thinking Tools, Inspiration, Monday Motivation, Motivation, Self Development, Self Help, Self Improvement